A day of sun had finally come and it was time for adventure. 60 odd kms out of town is the turn off for the Gibb River Road, a dirt track essentially connecting Derby with Kununurra and Wyndam – 500 plus kms. We’ve been seeing hordes of brown-caked FWDs – literally wearing the wet Gibb track from stem to stern and undercarriage to roof. The sort of mud and dirt you dream about wallowing in as a boy. We too wanted some of the action so headed in to see if we could make it to Zebedee Thermal springs. The road was actually not unlike some of the dirt tracks I’d driven during my tree-planting years with no serious creek/river crossings. Bessie had no problems whatsoever. The thermal springs were a couple hundred meters in from the parking lot which held maybe 5 or 6 other vehicles. It was only open for general tourists from 6 AM until noon and we arrived at 11 AM, so only had a short time to enjoy them. It was a little surreal oasis with picture perfect clear water cascading down a gentle slope into some soaking pools with palm trees interrupting the flow in little islands of roots and moss. It was a great way to begin our little adventure session. Next we had to close our pores so headed back from whence we came, stopping at the trail-head for the Amalia Gorge . The hike in was a bit more involved and probably best done in a proper pair of hikers rather than flip flops – but flip flops was all we had. The crux of the hike was making our way around an outcropping of rock with about a foot or so ledge underneath. The kids did it on all fours with ease while Jen and I had to find a climbing hold and gently swing ourselves around. From there it was easy sailing and the lower falls (Ochre falls) opened up into a couple levels of crystal clear pools with cool but bearable water. We could have headed further up stream to the actual Amalia falls but that would have involved a fairly tricky little climb not really suitable for a 3 or 6 year old. The pools and falls were excellent where we were so we stayed put. A perenthine lizard perched itself on the main jumping rock over the lower pool and held it’s position for the duration of our stay so no major cliff jumping could be had. We still had another gorge to go so we headed back to Bessie and onward to the Emma Gorge Resort. Emma Gorge is located 1.6kms in from the resort – a pristinely landscaped little complex complete with pool and outdoor restaurant. We fueled up on ice cream and Powerade and headed in. The sign at the entrance to the path indicated no new starts after 3 pm – it was 2:50 pm – so we’d made the cut. Some returning walkers looked at our youngish crew and felt obligated to announce that the sun would be setting at 5 pm – seemingly a word of warning or discouragement – obviously didn’t know what family they were dealing with. With Piper on the shoulders we made good time and completed the inward journey in about 35 mins (forecasted in the guide to take an hour). The reward for our efforts was great - a towering 65 metre fall with a large pool at the base of vertical reddish-stoned walls, simply breath-taking. Piper, Aidan and I swam our way to the base of the falls and felt the water rain upon us. Cole was a bit more timid and came only half way out – not too sure about the deeper waters. Jen had forgotten her bathers so had to be the photographer and let the serene environment cool her down after the hike in. We made it back to the car with at least 10 minutes to spare before sunset, feeling spent after a massive day of ‘gorging’ ourselves on nature. We hadn’t seen it all though and hoped the weather-gods would be with us for at least another couple of days so we could do some more venturing about and feel we had done the Kimberleys justice.
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